What To Do When a Stranger Knocks On Your Door

Today as we were all still in our pajamas recovering from a festive day of holiday cheer, two strangers rang our doorbell. This happens occasionally, and since my girls were home, it was a great opportunity to talk about what to do when someone you don’t know is knocking.

-Don’t answer the door! You are opening your home and your family up to a complete stranger if you do. It’s not worth the risk. If it’s someone who really needs to talk to you, they’ll call you or leave a note and you can deal with it when they’re gone. Don’t answer, don’t open.

-Make noise! Now this might sound counterintuitive. However, burglars will frequently knock on the door or ring the doorbell to see if anyone’s home before they try to get into your house. Most don’t actually want to run into the homeowner. They just want to get in, grab your stuff, and get out quickly. If they know someone is home, it’s quite possible they will abandon your house and move on to the next. So make plenty of noise.

-If you have a dog, try to make him bark. A survey of convicted burglars found that most would skip a house if it appeared there was a dog inside.

I hope you had a safe, secure and peaceful holiday weekend.

If you’re in the Indianapolis area and would like to learn more about security and self-defense, I invite you to take one of our self-defense classes. Just click on the